Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
I've been on the road the last four days, so I had not had a chance to comment on Bourdain's suicide. The taking of one's life has hit me HARD the last three years, with friends taking their own lives. (Montana, tragically leads the nation per capita in this stat.) I don't think "cowardice" is a fair way to label their act.
My dad's father took his own life, his mom tried and failed. I was too young to remember those events, my dad obviously was not. I know it has caused my dad all kinds of problems over the years. Being the son of alcoholics who commit/attempt to commit suicide creates quite a burden. I didn't know my grandfather, but from the stories I've heard, he wouldn't have wanted to cause the pain he did. My closest friend's brother did not mean to cause the heartache to my buddy that resonates to this day. Many people ask my buddy if his brother knew that he was loved. His response is generally "he simply had demons he couldn't get away from."
Consider yourself fortunate if depression is not part of your life.
cumberlandreds (06-12-2018),Dom Heffner (06-11-2018),marcshoe (06-12-2018),nmculbreth (06-11-2018),Redsfaithful (06-11-2018),RedTeamGo! (06-11-2018),Roy Tucker (06-11-2018),WrongVerb (06-11-2018)
The argument in this thread seems to equate one person's mental illness to another far too easily. Somebody with the capacity to commit murder whether they commit suicide afterwards or not is in no way similar to somebody who chooses to end their personal suffering. Mental illness is the biggest challenge this world is facing and we are losing the battle. We simply don't understand the brain enough to help people in the way they need helped. Sometimes medication and therapy help and sometimes not. As someone who has struggled with severe depression and anxiety my entire life all I can say is I am sorry Mr. Bourdain lost his battle with this frightening illness. I hope his family and friends can find the strength that he had to make such an impact on this world all while fighting. Much respect. Rest in peace.
Chip R (06-12-2018),dabvu2498 (06-12-2018),nmculbreth (06-11-2018),Redsfaithful (06-11-2018),RFS62 (06-21-2018)
I'm a subscriber to Goodreads. I have marked "Anthony Bourdain: Remembered" as a "Want to Read" for about 2-3 years now. With the extra time to read, I finally bought the book not realized it was more like a coffee table book. With that said, it was a book I should've read a while ago. I have watched very few episodes of "Parts Unknown" or anything else of Bourdain but have been intrigued by his 'cult.' I don't mean 'cult' in the negative term, but the people I follow on Twitter seemed to absolutely LOVE him and that's the reason I wanted to read it. (I also wanted to read it because I need a break from biography/history,etc type of books.).
This book is real. I absolutely loved it. Because of this, I'm going to start watching "Parts Unknown" and his other series and books. I had a basic grasp of what the man was like before I read this book. I now regret not knowing how much I should've appreciated him before this.
I'm just going back and reading this thread for the first time. I knew there was a thread on this but I never read every post.
I will say that at one point I felt exactly the same way Burt has felt. I was young and ignorant. As a whole, we have never really understood suicide but I think with a lot of the high profile suicides that happen, we are beginning to understand a lot more. I don't blame Burt for feeling this way because people like him and I simply didn't understand it at one point. I was in my teens and maybe early 20's before I realized the severity of suicide/depression, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I think we as a country have learned a lot about this issue in the last decade.
Redsfaithful (04-19-2020)
So I guess the traveling-the-world-eating genre is probably pretty dead, a pre-Covid artifact.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
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